“Bang! Bang! Bang!” Hear that? It’s the sound of an assault weapon in the hands of a rogue individual, taking down an airplane flying overhead. At least, that’s what the Reverend Jesse Jackson thinks assault weapons can do. The Reverend’s misinformed assertion that assault weapons are capable of shooting down airplanes came during a Fox News appearance yesterday. “These semi-automatic weapons, these assault weapons, can only kill people, and in fact, they are threats to national security … the young man who did the killing in Aurora, Colorado … he could shoot down airplanes, so this is a matter of...

A troubling oversight has been found within New York State's sweeping new gun laws. The ban on having high-capacity magazines, as it's written, would also include law enforcement officers. Magazines with more than seven rounds will be illegal under the new law when that part takes effect in March. As the statute is currently written, it does not exempt law enforcement officers.

With a March 1 deadline looming for Congress to once again strike a deal in order to avoid $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts -- including $500 billion at the Pentagon -- some companies that rely on the defense industry are already bracing for the worst by canceling contracts and laying off workers. Kathleen Volandt, president of Auroros, Inc., told Fox News that the constant uncertainty in Washington reduced her total revenues by 56 percent last year. A disabled veteran who employs three full-time staffers and 31 contractors at her Raleigh, N.C.-based information technology company, Volandt said each passing deadline...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who oversaw a moratorium on offshore drilling after the BP oil spill and promoted alternative energy sources, announced he will step down in March — and on the short list as a possible replacement is outgoing Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO)’s annual audit of the government, released Thursday, raises serious concerns about the federal government’s long-term financial stability and the effectiveness of the Affordable Care Act’s cost-curbing measures. The report found “that—absent policy changes—the federal government continues to face an unsustainable fiscal path.” The GAO, which is an “independent, nonpartisan” government agency, released its annual report as Congress braces for a fight with President Barack Obama over the debt ceiling. Republicans are calling for spending cuts in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. The president has vowed not to negotiate with Congress. The report notes that...

... Over the past two years, Republicans have ... viewed every potential crisis -- a possible government shutdown, the threat of a debt ceiling breach and the prospect of the nation sailing over the "fiscal cliff" -- as an opportunity to corner Obama into agreeing to tackle the nation's mounting debt problem. This strategy has created a dynamic in which Obama has successfully portrayed Republicans as reckless, incapable of governance and willing to put the economy at risk to make a political statement. He's been able to deflect questions about his own lack of action on deficits by blaming Republican...

French troops have been fighting Mali's Islamist rebels in street battles in the town of Diabaly, Malian and French sources say. In the first major ground operation in the conflict, French special forces were fighting alongside Malian troops. Diabaly, 350km (220 miles) north of the capital Bamako, was captured by the rebels on Monday. France intervened in Mali last Friday to try to halt the Islamists' push southwards towards the capital. In a separate development, the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court opened a war crimes investigation, focusing on acts committed since January 2012 in some northern regions of...

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is encouraging licensed gun dealers to help private gun sellers run federal background checks. In an open letter to the country's federally licensed gun dealers, the ATF says they can "enhance public safety and assist law enforcement" by facilitating private sales through their businesses and running federal background checks on prospective gun buyers.

A Mexican national claims to be the man who shot and killed U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, whose death is tied to the "Fast and Furious" gun-walking scandal. Gustavo Cruz-Lozano, who says he killed Terry, turned himself in on Wednesday on charges related to a separate incident: threatening to kill Hidalgo County, Texas Sheriff Lupe Treviño. But before he surrendered himself, Cruz-Lozano said in an exclusive interview with Univision News' daily news magazine show "Primer Impacto" that he murdered Terry during a firefight on Dec. 14, 2010, while the agent was on patrol near the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona....

Attorney General Eric Holder and his Department of Justice have asked a federal court to indefinitely delay a lawsuit brought by watchdog group Judicial Watch. The lawsuit seeks the enforcement of open records requests relating to Operation Fast and Furious, as required by law. Judicial Watch had filed, on June 22, 2012, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking all documents relating to Operation Fast and Furious and “specifically [a]ll records subject to the claim of executive privilege invoked by President Barack Obama on or about June 20, 2012.” The administration has refused to comply with Judicial Watch’s FOIA...

HONG KONG—Asia's premium airlines have over the past two decades signed on as high-profile launch customers for many new commercial jetliners, such as the Airbus A380 and Boeing Co. BA +1.24% 787, aiming to raise their global profile while renewing an aging fleet. The key driver behind these moves was a push over the past two decades by the region's airlines to launch newer, more fuel-efficient aircraft amid a strengthening regional economy and a boom in demand for air travel across Asia. But the latest problems facing the 787 Dreamliner—which Japan's two main carriers were the first to fly—highlight the...

Mr. Biden told a U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting in Washington that it was “pure coincidence” that he was in Lancaster County, Pa., on Oct. 2, 2006, when a deranged gunman was killing students nearby at a tiny Amish school. “I happened to be literally — probably, it turned out, to be a quarter of a mile [away] at an outing when I heard gunshots in the woods,” Mr. Biden recounted. “We didn’t know. … We thought they were hunters.”

MILWAUKEE—Nearly as many Americans die from guns as from car crashes each year. We know plenty about the second problem and far less about the first. A scarcity of research on how to prevent gun violence has left policymakers shooting in the dark as they craft gun control measures without much evidence of what works. That could change with President Barack Obama's order Wednesday to ease research restrictions pushed through long ago by the gun lobby. The White House declared that a 1996 law banning use of money to "advocate or promote gun control" should not keep the Centers for...

TRENTON – Gov. Christie blasted the NRA’s new ad focusing on President Obama’s daughters – he called it “reprehensible” – but he wouldn’t given an opinion about a proposed federal assault weapons ban. Christie’s extensive comments on the issues of guns and violence came during a news conference this afternoon at the Statehouse in which Christie announced the creation of a task force to examine “violence control” measures in the wake of the shooting massacre in Sandy Hook. Led by two former state attorneys general, one Republican and one Democrat, and made up of

"By far, the toughest part of my job was going to those funerals, going to those homes and going to those classrooms," he told a conference of the nation's mayors who met with Duncan earlier in the day to discuss education.

Izhar Khan, 26, the imam of a mosque in Margate, is a free man after U.S. District Judge Robert Scola issued a verdict of acquittalHours after a federal judge dismissed terrorism support and conspiracy charges against him, a young Muslim cleric on Thursday said he hopes his father similarly is cleared of such charges. “I'm hoping he will get released soon,” said Izhar Khan, 26, an imam at a mosque in suburban Margate north of Fort Lauderdale. “Justice will be served. Only time will tell.” Thursday, U.S. District Judge Robert Scola issued a verdict of acquittal for the younger Khan,...

Soldiers in Afghanistan have been filling us in on what it means to no longer get a hot breakfast each morning - and it has a lot more to do with morale than hunger. The comments are in response to a story that appeared in Home Post last week about the Pentagon's dismissal of a viral email that claimed all troops in Afghanistan weren't getting breakfast. According to the American Forces Press Service: The Internet myth’s genesis came from a few forward operating bases in eastern Afghanistan’s Paktika province that are closing or being turned over to Afghan security forces....

Speaking from Rome, U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said the U.S. will take "all necessary and proper steps" in response to the attack and subsequent hostage crisis in Algeria. Panetta called it a "terrorist act" and said "it is a very serious matter when Americans are taken hostage, along with others." Yesterday, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb made it clear that the targeting of Americans was intentional--that it was a way to send a message that the U.S. will "face the consequences" if they help the French fight Malian Islamists in southeast Algeria.

A New York Times columnist has come under fire after retweeting a controversial message that referred to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the National Rifle Association (NRA) as “the 2 most pig like lobbies” in America. According to Adam Kredo of The Washington Free Beacon, Columnist Nicholas Kristof on Wednesday afternoon retweeted the message written by longtime Israel critic M.J. Rosenberg, which recalled the recently unearthed statements by Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi that referred to Jews as “pigs.” “OBAMA told the 2 most pig like lobbies, AIPAC & NRA, to drop dead in same month. Next: Chamber...

WASHINGTON (KABC) -- Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was in the national spotlight Monday calling for federal immigration reform. With so many priorities in Washington D.C. right now, the mayor said he doesn't want this issue to fall off the radar screen. Villaraigosa spoke at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., and called repairing the nation's broken immigration system an economic imperative. He wants a pathway to citizenship as the core of any reforms. "No human being is illegal. No human being should be illegal. We must enshrine this principle into the heart and soul of this country's immigration...

The Military Is Already Preparing For The Worst-Case Sequester Scenario Paul SzoldraJanuary 17, 2013There's plenty of talk about the "fiscal cliff" -- which was avoided by a last-minute deal last month — but that only delayed a huge Pentagon fear: Sequestration. What happens if the military is slapped with sequestration -- automatic budget cuts to the tune of about $500 billion over ten years? The Defense Department is the biggest loser in the latest budget battle, and although Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta is hopeful about reaching an agreement, they still need to plan for the possibility, which left unchecked...

The Department of Homeland Security has released their 2011 "Analysts Desktop Binder," detailing how the department has been monitoring activity on the internet and social networks. The binder includes an extensive list of key words and search terms carefully watched by analysts in multiple agencies including the Directorate for National Protection and Programs, Directorate for Science and Technology, Office of Health Affairs, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and others. Many monitored search terms are basic and used on a regular basis by every day American citizens and journalists.

Hilda Solis, the outgoing Secretary of Labor made some surprising comments in an interview with Fox News Latino: In a wide-ranging, exclusive interview with Fox News Latino on Wednesday, Solis, the first Hispanic Labor Secretary in U.S. history, made it clear that despite her resignation, politics still flow through her blood. When asked whether she would consider running for the mayor of Los Angeles or governor of California, she proudly pandered to illegal aliens: ”I will absolutely make myself available,” said Solis, a four term congresswoman representing districts in the heavily Hispanic East LA area. “Many of the hardworking people...

The Legacy Lives On! Mark’s Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation “Conservatism is the antidote to tyranny precisely because its principles are the founding principles.” --Mark Levin in Liberty and TyrannyWelcome to “The Levin Lounge”… Step in and have a virtual FRink.Taking the country by storm, one radio station at a time – and kicking the BUTTS of the competition! Welcome all, to the most FUN LIVE THREAD on FreeRepublic.com! You can call Mark’s show: 1-877-381-3811

NEW YORK (WABC) -- It appears someone forgot to exempt police officers from the ban of ammunition clips with more than 7 bullets in New York State's new gun control law. It's a big oversight that apparently happened in the haste by the Cuomo Administration to get a tough package of gun-control measures signed into law. On Tuesday, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the sweeping gun measure, the nation's toughest. It includes a ban on the possession of high-capacity magazines.

Two Americans escaped unharmed Thursday from a hostage standoff with an Al Qaeda-linked group as Algeria's state news agency reports special forces have completed a rescue operation to free the remaining foreign hostages, but casualties have been reported. Algerian state television said that four captives, two Britons and two Filipinos have died. But the militants said at least 35 hostages had died in the state's rescue attempt. There was no way to independently verify the toll in the remote location, 800 miles from Algiers. The two Americans who managed to escape the Ain Amenas gas plant where they were being...

The White House on Thursday again evaded direct questions about whether chemical weapons have been deployed in Syria. White House press secretary Jay Carney would not deny definitively that chemical weapons were used in the city of Homs, despite claims made in a recent classified State Department cable that such weapons had been used. Carney referred to the information in the cable as “anecdotal” and said that the State Department could not independently corroborate the information in the cable, which originated from a third-party source on the ground in Syria.

Karl Rove enlivened Fox News Channel's election coverage last year by questioning the network's declaration that Barack Obama had been re-elected. It hasn't affected Fox's desire to keep him on the air. The network announced Thursday that it had signed Rove to a new contract as a contributor. The deal runs through the 2016 election.

Hundreds of political activists were bedding down in a field near the Drax power station in North Yorkshire. It was August 2006 and eco-activists had erected tents beside the UK's single biggest carbon emitter. As night fell on the inaugural Climate Camp protest the campaigners near the coal-fired station had no idea that their camp had been infiltrated by three undercover police officers. Mark Kennedy, now the most famous of police spies, and, it now seems, a woman constable known as Lynn Watson – were that night inside tents sleeping with activists. The third, an officer using the alias Mark...

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — It’s way past time: House Republicans need to stop talking about rape. That’s the message GOP lawmakers got here Wednesday evening from Kellyanne Conway, a top GOP pollster. Conway dispensed the stern advice as part of a polling presentation she made alongside fellow GOP pollsters David Winston — an adviser to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) — and Dave Sackett. The comment was described by several sources in the room. Conway said rape is a “four-letter word,” and Republicans simply need to stop talking about it in their races for office. Several GOP candidates got themselves in...

The son of former Philadelphia Police Commissioner Sylvester M. Johnson surrendered to authorities today a week after being charged in a house-stealing scheme. Steven Johnson, 49, a former SEPTA police lieutenant, was arrested at the District Attorney's office this morning and charged with criminal conspiracy, theft by unlawful taking, theft by deception, forgery, tampering with records and related counts. A three-year investigation uncovered 22 cases of forged deeds recorded with the city that were used to transfer uninhabited properties. The properties often were sold to innocent purchasers without the knowledge of the lawful owners, said a spokeswoman for the District...

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told troops at a military base in Italy that only soldiers needed assault weapons. From Reuters: Asked by a soldier what President Barack Obama would do to protect school children from gun violence without infringing Americans’ right to own guns, Panetta said action was needed after the attack on a Connecticut school in December in which a gunman killed 20 children and six adults. He told members of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team at Vicenza that there were areas where steps could be taken, “I mean who the hell needs armor-piercing bullets except you guys...

Labor insiders expect a federal appeals court to rule in the near future on a landmark case challenging President Barack Obama’s controversial recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in December in Noel Canning v. NLRB. At issue is the legitimacy of three NLRB board members appointed by Obama while the Senate remained in pro-forma session in an attempt to block the president from making a recess appointments. Insiders expect the court to expedite the proceedings. “Given the importance of this case, the decision should come out in the next...

but Biden’s remarks at the Capitol Hilton mark the first declaration that the White House plans to barnstorm to build support for its gun proposals. “We’re going to take this fight to the halls of Congress, Biden said. “We’re going to take it beyond that. We’re going to take it to the American people. We’re going to go around the country making our case and we’re going to let the voices, the voices of the American people be

President Obama is tripling the number of Cabinet agencies with gun control law enforcement responsibilities in his new bid to track guns, adding six agencies to the three typically included--Justice, Homeland Security and Defense. Section 1.e of his executive order released Wednesday adds State, Treasury, Interior, Agriculture, Energy, and Veterans Affairs. It reads: "For purposes of this memorandum, 'Federal law enforcement agencies' means the Departments of State, the Treasury, Defense, Justice, the Interior, Agriculture, Energy, Veterans Affairs, and Homeland Security, and such other agencies and offices that regularly recover firearms in the course of their criminal investigations as the President...

After reviewing President Obama‘s 23 “executive actions” signed into law yesterday, Joe Scarborough said Thursday morning that his Republican Party had better proceed with caution, seeing as how he believes the policy proposals have the “overwhelming” support of the American people. The president’s plan included universal background checks on gun purchases, which Scarborough said has the support of at least “85% of Americans.” The president’s call for a

On a Sunday morning a couple years ago, Brooklyn journalist Foster Kamer and a few of his "particularly liberal" blogger friends decided to skip brunch and hit the shooting range instead. "We said, hey, let's do something ridiculous," he recalled. "Let's go shoot guns." They chose the nearest site they found, a range that operated out of a basement in midtown Manhattan. "The first thing that happened when we got there was we heard some guy hammering away at a target with what sounded like a cannon. It was just in such tight quarters. It kind of freaked us out."...

"The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution ..."~Article V, United States Constitution.By Mr. Curmudgeon:The cry uttered by many a small-government advocate is, "Take our country back!" And so, they work tirelessly to elect small-government representatives to Congress. The assumption, especially among members of the Tea Party, is that these representatives can...

Since retiring and leaving Law Enforcement, I have been active in Risk Management consulting, a field that has grown rapidly throughout every industry over the past 20 years. Some of the companies I have consulted to for risk management include IBM, Gates Lear jet, National Semiconductor, and Pinkerton International Protection Services.

The U.S. hasn't confirmed an Al Qaeda-affliliated group's claim that it perpetrated the attack. "We certainly heard reports of people taking responsibility, making claims of responsibility for this terrorist attacks but we have not been able to thus far confirm those claims," Carney said. SNIP Carney said. "I wouldn't want to say anything that turned out not to be true."

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney says the NRA's ad is "repugnant and cowardly." Setting aside the irony of a Quaker school with armed guards, do you suppose Jay thinks it is "repugnant and cowardly" for Sidwell Friends School to be advertizing to fill a vacancy for armed guards? Armed guards are a routine part of exclusive high dollar private schools in big cities like Washington. And the elite demand nothing less. But don't you dare protect your kids! For those outside the beltway, Sidwell Freinds is fameously where the Clintons sent, and Obamas send, their children to school. Tuition...

HOUSE BILL NO. 69 IN THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA TWENTY-EIGHTH LEGISLATURE - FIRST SESSION BY REPRESENTATIVES CHENAULT, Millett, Johnson, Tammie Wilson Introduced: 1/16/13 Referred: A BILL FOR AN ACT ENTITLED 1 "An Act exempting certain firearms and firearm accessories in this state from federal 2 regulation; providing criminal penalties for federal officials who enforce or attempt to 3 enforce a federal law, regulation, rule, or order regulating certain firearms and firearm 4 accessories in this state; and providing for an effective date." 5 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 6 * Section...

Two handguns and two pistol permits were stolen from the New City home of a man whose name and address are listed on the website of a local newspaper as possessing gun permits, police said. The thieves ransacked the house Wednesday night, breaking into two safes on the home's third floor and stealing a third safe. The guns were in the stolen safe, police said. Clarkstown police said they had no evidence the burglary was connected to the controversial map.

President Obama’s mandate that most private companies provide health insurance plans that include free contraceptives has met with considerable headwinds in the legal system, where nine of the 14 federal courts to rule so far have sided with employers who say the mandate violates their beliefs and infringes on their religious liberties. While the broad scope of the president’s health law survived Supreme Court scrutiny last year, the challenges to the contraception mandate remain a major legal hurdle for the Obama administration, and the deep skepticism shown by a number of judges makes it likely the high court will be...

PHILADELPHIA — It was several weeks ago when vandals struck the building site, setting fire to a crane, cutting deep gashes in steel columns and loosening the bolts that anchored them. The episode resulted in about $500,000 in damage and was, the authorities believe, apparently an attempt to halt the construction of a Quaker meeting house. The $5.8 million building was being constructed for the Chestnut Hill Friends, a Quaker community in a northern section of Philadelphia. Cuts in the steel columns that make up the building’s frame were made with an acetylene torch, indicating that the attack was carried...

GOLDMAN: Gold Is Going To $1200 Matthew BoeslerJanuary 17, 2013The bank's central thesis is that the U.S. economic recovery finally takes off in 2013, and Goldman expects that to drive a selloff in the gold market as investors rotate away from traditional "safe-haven" investments. At the time, the analysts wrote, "We lower our 3-, 6- and 12-mo gold price forecasts to $1,825/toz, $1,805/toz and $1,800/toz and introduce a $1,750/toz 2014 forecast. While we see potential for higher gold prices in early 2013, we see growing downside risks." Now, Goldman has decided to up the ante a bit. Yesterday, its commodity...

Behold the delusional vanity of the man who knows what’s best for eight million Americans (300 million, if God forbid, he could rise that far). Mayor Michael Bloomberg was asked if he remembers when he became an anti-gun crusader: No, but I did get interested in public health a long time ago, as you know. And I think, as mayor, my responsibility is to do everything I can is to do everything I can to protect the health and safety and increase the longevity of the people that live in this city. As an American, and as a human being,...

...accelerating a process that began during his campaign, Obama since November has confidently picked fights with Republicans—and challenged the most conservative members of his own party—on a broad range of foreign-policy and domestic social issues... Obama in effect is answering a question that liberal political thinkers have asked since the 1970s: how would the Democratic Party behave if it could diminish its dependence on conservative white voters? His forceful moves on all these controversial fronts represent a calculated gamble that the evolution of the US electorate has reached a critical tipping point. When Bill Clinton moved on some of these...

A private organization that “helped lay the groundwork” for Obamacare is hosting a symposium to “offer specialized education in health care reporting” for mainstream reporters from outlets including Reuters and Money magazine. As reported by Rusty Weiss for FreedomWorks, the Commonwealth Fund is sponsoring a two-day symposium, hosted by the Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) entitled “The Business of Health Care” at Reuters headquarters in New York City. The symposium will “offer specialized education in health care reporting” and “boost knowledge of the Affordable Care Act.” “The goal over two days will be to introduce fellows to...